• 1
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23(current)
State of Kodi Media Players: Best Options in 2024
Congrats. No idea on VPN and Node-RED use, but hopefully experts or devs can help you in the CoreELEC forum.

Re: the new Wal-Mart onn Pro box, I'll get it for sure to test Big Grin. I kinda know what to expect out of a S905X4 device, but the kicker w/this is 3GB of RAM, which should (in theory) help w/performance. And, given it's limited by a 100M LAN port, WiFi 6 should work well for HTTP streaming.
Reply
Quote: 
Re: the new Wal-Mart onn Pro box, I'll get it for sure to test . I kinda know what to expect out of a S905X4 device, but the kicker w/this is 3GB of RAM, which should (in theory) help w/performance. And, given it's limited by a 100M LAN port, WiFi 6 should work well for HTTP streaming.
Pretty sure it won't be capable, but waiting to see if the Onn Pro box supports lossless audio or if it only does the DD+ style Atmos.
Reply
Forgot about that important aspect... if it can't passthrough full HD/object-based audio, then I won't be getting one. The SoC is certainly capable, so it's whether Wal-Mart/onn permit it in their firmware.
Reply
Well, I've read every post on this thread, and most of my questions have been answered. So, thank you all! I was pretty set on buying a Zidoo Z9X Pro for my local media and an AppleTV 4k for streaming. After reading all the posts, I will instead be buying an Ugoos AM6B+. Haven't used Kodi in a very long time, and truth be told I was looking forward to something new like the poster wall of the Zidoo's HT4. Pretty sure Kodi can be customized to look like it? If so, I would appreciate some suggestions. Only thing I have not read is whether it does all types of 3DHuh
Reply
I too have read all of this thread and have just ordered a Ugoos AM6B+.
I only need it for Kodi/coreelec so feel pretty confident it will be a good purchase, thank you to everyone here who has posted great help and information.
Reply
(2024-05-04, 04:56)lonelegi0naire Wrote: Well, I've read every post on this thread, and most of my questions have been answered. So, thank you all! I was pretty set on buying a Zidoo Z9X Pro for my local media and an AppleTV 4k for streaming. After reading all the posts, I will instead be buying an Ugoos AM6B+. Haven't used Kodi in a very long time, and truth be told I was looking forward to something new like the poster wall of the Zidoo's HT4. Pretty sure Kodi can be customized to look like it? If so, I would appreciate some suggestions. Only thing I have not read is whether it does all types of 3DHuh
This is almost becoming a Ugoos AM6B+ thread, LOL Smile. This device won't do framepacked MVC 3D, but like almost any media player, can do half-SBS & half-TAB. Kodi's media library management & skin options make Zidoo's HT4 feel like Windows 98 IMHO.
(2024-05-04, 14:01)stammie Wrote: I too have read all of this thread and have just ordered a Ugoos AM6B+.
I only need it for Kodi/coreelec so feel pretty confident it will be a good purchase, thank you to everyone here who has posted great help and information.
Look forward to your impressions.
Reply
Thanks for letting me know about the 3D types it plays. I will have to look into customizing Kodi then. I'm going to order it now regardless, but two more things I'd like to know is, is it easy to switch back and forth between Android and Coreelec?Hopefully, the Kodi app on Android will be able to do all DV profiles on this box someday, because I do like my emulators. Also, do you recommend an air mouse remote or any other versus the one it comes with? Thanks again!
Reply
@hdmkv Thanks for the thread and hence keeping FullHD 3D in the list of relevant features (few others than you would have ;-).

1. Maybe worth noting in post 1 that Sam did confirm that the firmware bugs for 3D will not be fixed by the SoC vendor - not even for the Vero5k SoC ;-(. If need be i can dig up the thread from the OSMC forum where that was asked and answered.

2. I wonder how you came to say "no FullHD 3D" Support on Intel N100. It might make sense to include a pointer to the following normative URL in post 1 pointer https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...phics.html.  And i can confirm that i played around long with some N95 miniPC to confirm i could never get the Full HD 3D display mode by the driver. Whereas i can get them from older Intel CPU.

In result of this N100 and other newer Intel CPU limitation, one actually may consider to include a pre-gen12 miniPC as an option. Not sure if the N5000 series was still ok., but certainly J4125 and the like. And of course core-I up to 11xxx. BUT: All the china originated Intel boxes i had, whether they where N/J or core-I series did not give me HDCP 2.2 under windows 10/11. For example BeeLink boxes, which are otherwise fine. The reason seems to be that Intel managed to make HDCP 2.2 very hard to implement. Seemingly it needs to be in the VBIOS, which is part of BIOS, and seemingly at most american/taiwanese vendors may care (i've only tested it working with one older ASUS motherboard).

So, what does work well, and what is my geneal purpose HTPC are AMD Ryzen based builds or MiniPC. I managed to get some ASUS PN50 for cheap ($150), and also a new BeeLink SER5. All Ryzen systems do HDCP 2.2, even the older Motherboards which initially didn't announce it - because the whole HDMI encoder is in the CPU, and not in external chips as in most Intels. side note: I have also never managed to get 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR out of Intel systems - thats the 18Gbps HDMI signal, as opposed to the cheap 4K@60 (no HDR) that is marketed for all those Intel MiniPC, and which uses 4:2:2 8 Bit, and hence uses only HDMI 1.4 12Gbps instead of HDMI2.0 18Gbps.

Anyhow: My vote is for including the "any" Ryzen systems with Windows 11, e.g.: BeeLink SER5
- HDCP 2.2
- Up to 18Gbps HDMI video, 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR
- All Audio option
- Full HD 3D with PotPlayer
- 4K/HDR Netflix with Netflix App or Edge Browser
- 4K/HDR AppleTV with AppleTV app
- ... alas i think other streamers do not support more than 1080p, but i have not fully investigated those
- Dolby Vision i am missing the display capability so far to test.
Reply
(2024-05-03, 14:46)hdmkv Wrote: Forgot about that important aspect... if it can't passthrough full HD/object-based audio, then I won't be getting one. The SoC is certainly capable, so it's whether Wal-Mart/onn permit it in their firmware.
I picked up one.

No go on lossless passthrough. No audio for TrueHD until I changed to the Android packer. After doing that, TrueHD comes out as DD+ 5.1 with the Atmos data dropped.

DTS-HD variants are stripped down to DTS Core.

The best you can get out of it is EAC-3 JOC Atmos.
Reply
That's disappointing, but not surprising. Thanks for testing @signde.

@te36, for #1 & 2, thanks, added to the first post. With Beelink SER5 & similar miniPC's, wasn't aware 3D MVC was possible. I actually have a SER5 for kids' family room gaming duties. I assume you'd just need to set-up PotPlayer as an external player using playercorefactory? Do other apps like PowerDVD still work for full 3D? On DV, don't believe any PC's support it.

@lonelegi0naire, with Ugoos, it's pretty easy switching back-and-forth between CoreELEC and Android. Alternatively, on the Android side, you can use this free app to reboot to CE.
Reply
(2024-05-07, 21:29)hdmkv Wrote: @te36, for #1 & 2, thanks, added to the first post. With Beelink SER5 & similar miniPC's, wasn't aware 3D MVC was possible. I actually have a SER5 for kids' family room gaming duties. I assume you'd just need to set-up PotPlayer as an external player using playercorefactory? Do other apps like PowerDVD still work for full 3D? On DV, don't believe any PC's support it.

@lonelegi0naire, with Ugoos, it's pretty easy switching back-and-forth between CoreELEC and Android. Alternatively, on the Android side, you can use this free app to reboot to CE.
Yes, potplayer has MVC software decoder. I have not tried to integrate it as external player with Kodi.

The main issue for me was to not end up with black picture from the AMD graphics driver. If you have configured for example 4k@60 and you switch to 3D in the windows settings, then i end up with black picture on my Epson 5050UB. Talking to AMD support their convoluted response sounded as if the driver might be switching to 4K @ 120 in support of frame sequential DLP projectors. But given how i don't have one, i can not verify. And once you are in that black picture mode it's almost impossible to get picture back from windows without reinstalling it. I used some remote display tool setup so i could unset 3D in windows (with i would know a registry setting).

Long story short: on the AMD graphics driver you want to first set resolution in Windows to 1920x1080@24 (no HDR) and then switch on 3D mode so that the driver will correctly switch video to HDMI 1.4b frame packing output.

I don't quite remember if it actually is necessary to go through that manual resolution change step when using potplayer, or if it is switching correctly by itself from the normal 4K resolution you likely would have with a 4K and 3D capable display. I am just careful in enabling it always before using potplayer (1920x1080@24).

This black pictureproblem happened to me primarily when i was playing with earlier MVC builds of Kodi (19/20), but on AMD, there was always the problem of requiring SW decode code-path to get into the software MVC decoder, and somehow i think i never got working picture, because (if i remember correctly), the ffmpeg in 19/20 was not rendering correctly to AMD in software because whether enabled in windows  or not, it required a HDR rendering surface. Could work now with 21, but i haven't checked state of MVC builds. I may misremember details. I just gave up on the MVC builds so far after i discovered potplayer.

DV: There are the Dolby Vision Extensions you can download from the Microsoft Store  for windows 11, so i assume it is working/supported on windows 11. But no display here..
Reply
(2024-05-04, 17:31)hdmkv Wrote: This is almost becoming a Ugoos AM6B+ thread, LOL Smile.

You should open a thread for it! :-)
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first (usually it's enough to follow instructions in the second post).
Reply
Hello,

thanks you for your tips. It is vert instructive to learn more about video/hardware/codec etc. Smile

I will try the Homatics Box R 4k Plus.

https://www.homatics.com/fr/pages/homati...-r-4k-plus

My main goal is to play my local media play from my DIY NAS (Unraid installed) through NFS to this box.

I will install CoreELEC (because i'm a fan of Kodi :=)), and try to play format like H.264 / H.265 10bits and new one AV1. With different resolutions Full-HD and 4K.

My movies have Dolby Digital/Atmos/Digital Plus etc. I think it will be no problem with kodi as back end! Tongue


I look for the version DUNE, but since i want to install CoreELEC, i dont think i want to pay for the DUNE software (the price is more higher, and performance same? Huh )


Yunus.
Reply
Maybe continue Ugoos here?

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...ight=ugoos
Reply
(2024-05-08, 14:44)Yunusb2 Wrote: Hello,

thanks you for your tips. It is vert instructive to learn more about video/hardware/codec etc. Smile

I will try the Homatics Box R 4k Plus.

https://www.homatics.com/fr/pages/homati...-r-4k-plus

My main goal is to play my local media play from my DIY NAS (Unraid installed) through NFS to this box.

I will install CoreELEC (because i'm a fan of Kodi :=)), and try to play format like H.264 / H.265 10bits and new one AV1. With different resolutions Full-HD and 4K.

My movies have Dolby Digital/Atmos/Digital Plus etc. I think it will be no problem with kodi as back end! Tongue


I look for the version DUNE, but since i want to install CoreELEC, i dont think i want to pay for the DUNE software (the price is more higher, and performance same? Huh )


Yunus.

I don't use CE cause I'm a fan of libreelec

Joke 😃.


I don't use coreelec cause I use homatics with stream service and Kodi 21 on android for my use it's perfect (Nas using NFS)

And switch from coreelec to atv is not WAF

I suggest to update to atv 12 v5394 beta not 5221 asking in telegram beta channel for best local playback

Homatics is better than Nokia and Dune for software support

I also bought big remote to have more button for Kodi (keymap for change audio profile etc etc)
Reply
  • 1
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23(current)

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
State of Kodi Media Players: Best Options in 20240